Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

236 Anatomy-Chemistry Building
Tel.:  215-573-3506
Fax:  215-898-4217
Email: sharpk@mail.med.upenn.edu

 

Sharp Departmental Page

Sharp Lab Page

The goal of the research is to gain a detailed understanding at the molecular and physical chemical level of how proteins bind and recognize other proteins, drugs, ligands and nucleic acids. Theoretical and computational methods used include Poisson-Boltzmann electrostatics, Molecular and Browian Dynamics, and Monte Carlo simulations.

Current Research:

  1. Calculation of protein ligand binding energies and association kinetics
  2. Calculation of redox and spectral properties of Heme proteins
  3. Theory of ligand binding to DNA
  4. Calculation of heat capacity changes in protein folding and binding

Selected Publications:

Sharp, K. (2001) Entropy-enthalpy compensation: fact or artifact?  Protein Sci.  10:661-667.

Prabhu, N. V., S.D. Dalosto,  K.A. Sharp, W.W. Wright and J.M. Vanderkooi (2002) Optical spectra of Fe(II) cytochrome c interpreted using molecular dynamics simulations and quantum mechanical calculations. J. Phys. Chem. 106:5561-5571.

Luo, H. and K.A. Sharp (2002). On the calculation of absolute binding free energies. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (In press)

Manas, E., W. Wright, K.A. Sharp, J. Friedrich and J.A. Vanderkooi (2000) The influence of protein environment on the low temperature electronic spectroscopy of Zn substituted cytochrome c.  J. Phys. Chem. 104:6932-6941.

Chin, K., K.A. Sharp, B. Honig and A. Pyle (1999) Calculating electrostatic potentials of RNA: providing new insights into molecular interactions and function. Nature Struct. Biol. 6:1055-1061.

Kuntz, I.D., K. Chen, K.A. Sharp and P. Kollman (1999) The maximal affinity of ligands. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:9997-10002.

Gallagher, K. and K.A. Sharp (1998) Electrostatic contributions to heat capacity Changes of DNA-ligand binding. Biophys. J. 75:769-776.

Sharp, K.A. and B. Madan (1997) The hydrophobic effect, water structure and heat capacity changes. J. Phys. Chem. 101:4343-48.